An intervention to improve nurse-physician communication in depression care. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • OBJECTIVES: Depression in older adult home care recipients is frequently undetected and inadequately treated. Failed communication between home healthcare personnel and the patient's physician has been identified as a barrier for depression care. The purpose of this pilot intervention study was to improve nurse competency for communicating depression-related information to the physician. DESIGN: A single group pre-post experimental design. SETTING: Two Medicare-certified home healthcare agencies serving an urban and suburban area in New York. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-eight home care nurses, all female Registered Nurses. INTERVENTION: Two-hour skills training workshop. MEASUREMENTS: To evaluate the intervention, pre-post changes in effective nurse communication using Objective Structured Clinical Examinations and nurse survey reports. RESULTS: The intervention significantly improved the ability of the home care nurse to perform a case presentation in a complete and standard organized format pre versus postintervention. The intervention also increased nurse-reported certainty to communicate depression-related information to the physician. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide support for the ability of a brief, depression-focused communication skills training intervention to improve home care nurse competency for effectively communicating depression-related information to the physician.

publication date

  • June 1, 2010

Research

keywords

  • Depression
  • Home Care Services
  • Interprofessional Relations
  • Nurses
  • Nursing
  • Physicians

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC8950104

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 77952791370

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1097/JGP.0b013e3181bf9efa

PubMed ID

  • 21217559

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 18

issue

  • 6